Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie
So THAT, my friend, is a great explanation as to how I'm able to have a phone line that only does pulse dialing for my seldom used house line.
Very well put, Tom!
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Yup. Sadly it is that way for most tel-com utilities.
A few years ago Spectrum decided to switch off analog cable here. It used to be I had probably 10+ NTSC tuners driving TVs (and several more in VCR's/DVR's/DVD-recorders) for me alone, and if I so wanted I could go to goodwill get 70+ TVs for $0.49 a pop plaster a wall with them and watch every analog channel at once. When they went digital instead of going with unencrypted QAM (which though I'd have to buy new tuners I could BUY and OWN my own tuners in whatever quantity I see fit) they went with encrypted QAM...This meant that only Spectrum issued boxes will tune cable. That wouldn't be so bad if they didn't charge rent (they were free for the first year to help cook us frogs...Er..Um..Customers). So now I have 3 tuners. And each of our 6 boxes is costing ~$6 a pop a month. If I want to watch/record more than 3 shows at once (which happens occasionally) I'm screwed. And my timer recordings on vacations can get shows maybe 2-3 channels max when the same bank of VCRs&such could record material from 70+ channels before.
If I can find a better option my family will probably cut the cable...